"This will enhance the BBC's reputation, allow commercial radio a level playing field and, most importantly, enhance listener choice".
The nationwide roll-out of commercial stations such as Smooth and Kiss means more listener choice, but we need to protect local radio too: it is, after all, what we turned to when the snow disrupted everyday life.
And while more stations may equate to more listener choice (or at least several more variations of radio beige), the cannibalisation of audiences in recent years has failed to either raise the quality threshold or generate proportionally more revenue.
Their first single, "The Last of the Melting Snow", was listeners' overwhelming choice for record of the week on the Radcliffe and Maconie show on Radio 2 a few weeks ago.
For many music listeners, the choice is obvious – why would you ever buy a CD or pay for a download when you can stream your favourite albums and artists either for free, or for a nominal monthly charge?
"The more we know about you, the better the [recommendation] engine can be," said Sung, who warned that overloading listeners with choice provided a poor user experience, and that a fine balance must be struck between quantity and quality of recommendations.
"By giving music listeners the choice to buy, stream or download free from the artist," band frontman Josh Ocean tells TorrentFreak, "everybody wins and music is shared in a way that is convenient for listeners and respects the artists intellectual property".
The logic implied by Thomson is that if you remove 6 Music from the listener's choice, you broaden the appeal of commercial radio.
5. RADIO -- KashNGold's InVoca Voice-Activated Clock Radio ($100) can be prompted to turn itself on, let the user snooze and tune in to the listener's choice of preprogrammed stations.
From Ms. Gross's interviews to commentary by a stable of critics, "Fresh Air" guides listeners to choices as considered yet eclectic as the soul singer Arthur Alexander, the novelist Nadine Gordimer and the director Roger Corman.
If that works as it should, it offers the listener a choice that will sound a bit like his own CD collection, but retain the serendipity and surprise element of radio.Nobody is sure whether this model will be funded by advertising or subscription.
